Tried it Tuesday-The End of Molasses Classes

We are linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for

Have you heard of the book, The End of Molasses Classes, by Ron Clark?

If you haven’t I highly recommend you go out and grab a copy. I was in need of some major inspiration going into the new school year and started to read the book as my summer read. Once I started reading it I was hooked and almost immediately told Nichole that she had to go and get it too, which she did. Among many great ideas and tips for both teachers and parents, was the idea of incorporating music in the classroom. One of the sections talks about using music to excite, motivate, and inspire students. So we decided to give it a try with our classes. Every year we use a program called Kelso’s Choices as a way to show students how to solve small problems using one of nine different strategies. We thought that this was the perfect opportunity to spice up our usual lesson, so we took the song “Bad Blood,” by Taylor Swift, which talks about having problems with a friend and decided to flip it by creating our own lyrics.

Now we were a little nervous going in because we weren’t sure how well the students would do with coming up with lyrics in the spur of the moment and as teachers, we know that it can be scary to venture into the land of the unknown. In fact, Nichole was skeptical at first, but she said she would do it if I led the lesson. I agreed and gave some (slightly nervous) words of encouragement that we could do it! We chose a section of the song to share and of course when we first played it, the students were super excited. Then we told them that they would be coming up with lyrics to go along with the melody. And with a little support from their talented teachers ;), the students eventually came up with what we thought were pretty good lyrics.

Here are Taylor’s original lyrics:

'Cause, baby, now we got bad blood

You know it used to be mad love

So take a look what you've done

'Cause, baby, now we got bad blood

Hey

Now we got problems

And I don't think we can solve them

You made a really deep cut

And, baby, now we've got bad blood

Hey

Band-aids don't fix bullet holes

You say sorry just for show

You live like that, you live with ghosts

Band-aids don't fix bullet holes

You say sorry just for show

If you live like that you live with ghosts

If you love like that blood runs cold

'Cause, baby, now we got bad blood

You know it used to be mad love (mad love)

So take a look what you've done

'Cause, baby, now we got bad blood

Hey

Our students came up with these lyrics:

We used to have problems,

but now we know how to solve ‘em.

Using Kelso’s choices,

You just have to follow them.

Hey!

You can tell them to stop,

or wait and cool off.

You can also ignore it,

or you can just walk away.

Hey!

If that doesn’t work at first,

try another Kelso’s choice.

Maybe try to talk it out,

you can also make a deal.

Apologize to keep it real,

you should share with everyone.

You can always go to another game!

We used to have problems,

but now we know how to solve ‘em.

Using Kelso’s choices,

You just have to follow them.

Hey!

Then we had to practice (and practice some more) and add some moves and finally they were ready to perform. Below is the student’s rendition of the Kelso’s Choices Song. (There is one spot where the students got a little mixed up but the show must go on!)

The kids loved it and it showed us that sometimes it’s good to step outside of your comfort zone. If you’ve ever wanted to try something like this with your students, I would encourage you to take the plunge, you won’t regret it!-Joy